Jingle Bells, of course! Yeah yeah, I know. Silly song, nothing to it, right? Well, listen to this instrumental arrangement by Roy Clark, the extraordinary guitarist who died a few years ago. The song was written by James Lord Pierpont and first published in 1857. Oddly, it was originally intended as a Thanksgiving song, but …
Continue reading ‘What sound do the bells on sleighs make?’ »
Originally posted in December 2013. Here’s Carole King singing “Christmas Paradise,” an original Christmas song from her 2011 album “A Holiday Carole.” And yes, that is pretty much what it’s like to celebrate Christmas in Hawai’i. For a while there Dad would make a point of jumping into the pool on Christmas Day for the …
Originally posted December 2016. Let’s hear Nat King Cole sing O Tannenbaum in German. As far as I can tell his accent is pretty good. It’s from “The Christmas Song”, first released in 1960 as “The Magic of Christmas.” The song didn’t start out as a Christmas song when first written in 1824; as the …
Continue reading ‘You’ve decorated the halls, now the tree!’ »
Originally posted December 2018. Julie Andrews sings “Deck the Halls.” The melody was written in 15th-century Wales, and the original lyrics had nothing to do with Christmas or decorating, but were well wishes on the New Year. The English lyrics were written in the 19th century by a Scotsman named Thomas Oliphant and were first …
First posted in December 2015. Given the major storm system moving from west to east on the Mainland, Judy Collins (with Tyne Daly!) singing about the bleak midwinter seems appropriate. This is from her 2007 “All On A Wintry Night” album. It’s pretty spare; the only instruments are piano and possibly harpsichord, but with Collins’ …
Originally posted December 2017. All these folks promising to come home for Christmas have to get there somehow. Here are The Andrews Sisters singing “Sleigh Ride.” It’s not clear when this was first recorded, but it appeared on the 2004 compilation “Songs for Christmas”. The sisters had an incredible career. It began in the 1930s …
This was originally posted in 2016. Here are Steve (Lawrence) & Eydie (Gorme) wishing you “Happy Holidays.” They married in 1957 and performed together until 2010 when Eydie retired for health reasons. She died three years later. It’s unclear whether Steve is still performing; he announced in 2019 that he was in the early stages …
Originally posted December 2014. Pentatonix, from their 2014 That’s Christmas to Me album.
Originally posted December 2017. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leslie Odom Jr., singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from his “Simply Christmas” album. If you’re wondering who he is, he won a Tony as the first Aaron Burr in Hamilton. The song has had several iterations of its lyrics since it was written for the …
The origin of “Carol of the Bells” was known before but it has recently gotten a lot of attention, no doubt partly due to the invasion of Ukraine by its larger neighbor. The music was written by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych and the lyrics were written by a Ukrainian-American named Peter Wilhousky. From Wikipedia: The …